


Voice on the Radio

by PromptlyGoing



Category: Monster of the Week (Tabletop RPG), Seven Miles (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 23:33:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18041213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PromptlyGoing/pseuds/PromptlyGoing
Summary: It’s 3am on a Thursday night when Manny hears that voice on the radio again, whisper soft and kind of scratchy.“I hope the night is treating you well, everyone."There's a new voice on the airwaves and Manny has a crush.





	Voice on the Radio

**Author's Note:**

> "Hey you know what would be fun? Giving Manny the werewolf Africa by Toto as his theme song."  
> This entire fic: happens

It’s 3am on a Thursday night when Manny hears that voice on the radio again, whisper soft and kind of scratchy.  

“I hope the night is treating you well, everyone. Uh, there’s four of you listening - Gin, thanks for dropping in like you always do, but I know you have a test tomorrow so go to sleep. Valentine, don’t forget to empty the coffee carafe when you’re finished driving back to the apartment. You always leave it and it’s gross in the morning.  And Avery. Heh. Tell your little brother I said hi, and that I'm glad I got to meet him during his college visit.”  

“And to our mysterious fourth visitor, well.  I hope you’re having a good night as well.”  

The soft sound of synth keyboard becomes audible over the crackling stereo in the garage.  Manny sits up, fiddling with the knob to get it a little clearer.  Classes drain him during the day, but this perfect, quiet little bubble of time in the AM when it’s just him and the cars in Terry’s garage and the intimate voice on the radio?  This is what settles Manny in a way he can’t describe.  

_I hear the drums echoing tonight_

_But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation_

A quiet meow from the door.  “Hey Eggs,” Manny cooes, and tries to get the garage mouser to come closer for a little scratch under the chin.  He pouts when the cat hisses at him.  “Oh don’t be like that, I swear I washed off all the dog smell after I got back from the shelter today- hey Eggs, wait, where are you going?”  

Well, there was always tomorrow night.  Manny shakes his head and goes back to tinkering with Terry’s cars.  One of them has heavy water damage - driven through high water by an idiot, most likely - and would take Manny the rest of the night to even begin repairing.

He’s never been one for midnight radio, but he’d started listening to this station a few weeks ago when the college had gotten a new late night host - a soft spoken, masculine voice that fumbled over their words more often than not.  It was kind of cute, and easy on the ears, though when Manny tries to picture the face that voice belongs to he can never quite bring anything to mind.  

Please, let it not be an underclassman.  Let it be some tall, brooding, dark haired super senior with great abs and toned arms and like, nipple piercings and shit.  

Fuck, maybe Manny should redownload Grindr on his phone again.  

“I don’t need a boyfriend,” he justifies to the half-dismantled Corolla next to him.  “I don’t!  I have my animal advocacy work, and my part-time with Terry, and my classes.  I live a fulfilled life!”  Not to mention his mother would be unbearably smug - she’d read the horoscope to him _again_ this past weekend and told him to be on the lookout for unlikely liaisons in unexpected places.  Álvaro was back in town after vacationing in Europe and his sister had given him a look over the oatmeal and honestly, Manny didn’t need to invite that kind of bad juju into his life.  He’d stick with expected and non-star aligned meetings this week, thank you very much.  

_The wild dogs cry out in the night_

_As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company_  

Like that guy who always stopped to listen to him while Manny was handing out pamphlets in the student union, every day at 3pm on the dot.  Now _there_ was a tall glass of water.  He never did say much but that’s okay, Manny could be chatty enough for the both of them.  He’d _never_ gotten through his whole ten-minute talk about the importance of spaying and neutering with anyone else and this guy was always the perfect audience, patient, an attentive listener no matter what the topic.  

Manny always looks forward to it, though he was starting to run out of talk material at this rate.  Maybe it was time to dig up the sins of PETA and prepare something about animal charity navigation.  It wasn’t the holiday season but eh, smart philanthropy was always important.  

Speaking of philanthropy.  Manny pulls up the college radio app on his phone and throws a couple dollars at their donation link.  Mama didn’t raise no ingrate - Manny could help support a good thing he enjoyed.  

“Oh!  We just got...a donation?  What-um, wow, I mean-” the voice on the radio stutters.  Oh, so they went raspy when they were surprised.   _Nice_.  “Thank you so much for your support.  I’m guessing it’s our mystery listener.  It better not be either of you, Val, Avery, because I still owe you money for that couch.”  

Manny snickers. Oh man, this was another reason why he likes this particular radio host so much.  There were never many listeners in the dead hours, and if the numbers dipped low enough - the magic number was four, in Manny’s experience - that quiet voice would start making wry quips at specific people, probably friends who only tuned in because they knew the host.  

It was fucking cute, is what it was.  Manny wonders whether he had ever passed that mysterious “Gin” or “Val” or “Avery” on campus while he was walking to class.  

“Well, uh, since you sent a donation.” A cough.  “And you’ve been tuning in so faithfully - don’t think I haven’t noticed the extra listener for the past few weeks - why don’t you text in a request?  I can play a song for you, if you like.”  

They had a text number??? 

Manny taps through the app until he finds it - it’s actually pretty easy to find, right there on the home screen.  Sweet, so Manny was just oblivious.  Maybe it had been for the best - he has zero faith in himself not to spam the text line with inappropriate come-ons now that he knows about it.  

 _What’s your num-_  He snorts and deletes.   _What’s your na-_  Delete, delete, delete.  

A terrible idea strikes him.  He grins and texts in his request, then throws another couple dollars at the donation link for good measure.  

“Ah, and a request just came in for- oh.  Oh, um.” A beat.  “Are you sure you want ‘Africa by Toto’ played seven times with one ‘Call Me Maybe?’ thrown in there?”  

Manny cackles.  Ok, so maybe he was an ingrate, but that wasn’t his mama’s fault.  That was just pure one hundred percent Manuel Salazar.  

“Gin I swear if it’s you-”  The sentence trails off into a noisy sigh.  “Fine, I’ll do it.  But only because you’re such a generous supporter.”  Generous supporter, geez.  If four dollars was generous then the college station really was harder up than Manny had thought.  He leans back to listen as there’s the sound of tracks getting shuffled in the background.  While they work, the voice rambles.  

“I’m pretty new at this job so I feel like I’m always, uh, learning something new.”  The voice takes on a cocky, amused tone.  “For example, do you know that neutering your pet can lead to a decreased chance of cancer and other health problems?  I didn’t, until I heard a talk with the local chapter of Paws for a Cause in the student center last week.”  

Manny sits straight up.  

“-can also reduce aggression and, uh, your pet wandering off and getting lost.  Make them homebodies I guess?  I’m, heh, I’m not really the expert I guess, that’d be the, uh-”  The host clears their throat.  “Yeah, that guy, the one with the, uh, t-shirt.”  Another cough.  

Holy shit.   _Holy shit_.  

“Anyway, that is to say-” the voice mumbles.  Manny can picture it now - that tall, taciturn, sweet looking guy with the shock of white hair opening his mouth and having _that_ voice come out.  “It’s important to look after your pets!  And you should definitely support Paws for a Cause, they’re doing some great work here on campus.”  

Manny would be more thrilled with the club’s shout-out on public radio if he wasn’t frantically grabbing his jacket, keys, wallet and running out the door.

The student radio station isn’t far from the garage, only 0.7 miles according to his maps app.  Manny calculates how long it would take him to run the distance as he locks up the garage behind him.  A quiet meow has him looking up.  

“Eggs,” Manny whispers, mind blown.  “Eggs, it’s him.   _It’s the same guy_.”  

The cat chirrups in agreement and bounds off, leaving Manny to sprint to campus.  

Clumsily he plugs in his earphones and opens up the radio app again as he runs.  He clicks on their streaming link.  He’s missed the tail end of the guy’s talk and Manny’s first song is already playing.  

_It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you_

_There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do_

Manny runs like the wind.  

Campus is silent during this time of the night, only streetlamps and the blue glow of emergency phones illuminating the sidewalks.  Vaulting over the fence separating the science complex from engineering, Manny almost trips over a bike rack before stumbling off in the direction of the main quad.  A passing golf cart slows as one of the security guards pokes her head out.  

“Everything alright?”  

He waves them off.  “I’m good, Bobby!  Just- do you know if the student radio offices are open?”  

The old butch just gives him an unamused stare.  “It’s three-” she checks her watch, “-thirty in the morning, Salazar.”  

As if Bobby hasn’t seen him running around campus at worse hours.  “It’s important!  I need to borrow your key, can you lend it to me?”  At the look on her face he grins at her and shouts, “Do it for gay love!”  

“Fucks sakes you’re gonna wake people up,” Bobby grumbles.  She pats the seat next to her and scoots over.  “I’ll do you one better, I’ll drive you over there.”  

“Bobby, I love you.”  

“Just get in the damn golf cart, kiddo.”  

_I bless the rains down in Africa_

_Gonna take some time to do the things we never had_

The fourth ‘Africa’ starts playing when they finally pull up in front of the student union.  Manny launches out of the golf cart but not before smacking a friendly one on Bobby’s cheek.  “Thanks for the ride!”  

“Tip me in cash next time!” Bobby shouts after him, but Manny’s already halfway to the door.  Bobby’s card gets him into the building, and a quick look at the directory points him towards the second floor.  Manny takes the stairs two at a time and within minutes he’s standing in front of the broadcasting studio.  

The card doesn’t work.  “Hey,” Manny calls, rapping on the door.  “Hey!”  He’s not actually expecting an answer but then a head pops up over the ratty couch in the main room.  Wait, was that a fucking child?  

The kid lopes over and stares at Manny through the glass.  “Hey dude I don’t know what to tell you but we’re kind of closed.”

“I know, but this is important! I need to speak with that guy on the radio, like, uh, we know each other-?”

The kid's staring at his t-shirt. “Oh shit, you're _that_ guy.” Manny looks down. Was there something wrong with what he was wearing? Ok, so they'd ordered too many size smalls last year, whatever, the shirt might be a little tight but it still _fit._ Manny is still contemplating last year's  logo when he hears the door unlock.  

The kid has their phone up, and a grin on their face. “Kai's right back there my dude, go gettem!”

Manny doesn’t even have time to worry about why the kid looks so smug.  He gives a hurried “thanks!” before running past them, the words “oh man I can't _wait_ to post this to my Snapstory-” barely registering before he's in the hall, looking hurriedly through the windows.

The broadcasting studio is the last door. Manny doesn't even bother knocking. A slouched figure startles upright when he bursts through the door and holy shit, it really is him, the voice on the radio is quiet pet dude from the student union.

“Uh,” the voice from the radio says, only he's not on the radio he's right here, _in front of him_ , “What. I mean, it's you!” The man flushes. “I mean, what are you doing here?” He looks like he's halfway between dying of mortification and calling for campus security.

“You!” Manny exclaims.  “It’s you!  The guy from the student union who listens to all my pet talks!”  

“Yes, I’m.  Me??”  

Manny is still staring at him, drinking the sight in.  “You’re the voice on the radio!”  

“I-” The guy blinks.  The gears in his head seem to be turning.  “Oh shit,” he whispers.  

There’s an impatient cough by the door.  “Kai,” the kid hisses.  “ _Kai_ , ask him!”  Are they recording this?

“Gin, no, put the phone away-”  

“Kai, you literally talk about him all the time and now he’s here, the opportunity has literally fallen into your lap-”  

Manny doesn’t have _time_ for this.  He strides across the room and comes to a stop in front of - in front of Kai, he has a name now.  They both shut up.  

Manny clears his throat.  “Listen, I know this sounds a little weird, but I’ve been listening to your voice on the radio for a few weeks now, and uh, have always thought it sounded really nice. And tonight I realized you’re the same person as that cute guy who always lets me talk their ear off about animals, even when, I’ll admit, I can go on for a while.”  Was it hot in here?  Shit Manny was sweaty.  He tugs his collar.  

“So what I guess I’m saying is.  There were two guys I thought were cute, and it turns out they’re both you so, uh.”  Manny winces at how his voice cracks a bit.  “Do you want to go out sometime?”  

Because Manny did.  Manny really, really did.  

There’s a stretch of silence.  And then Kai smiles, a slow, warm thing that transforms his face into something utterly endearing.  “Only if I can get a name,” he replies.  “And only if you let me buy you drinks.”  The voice on the radio only now shy, intimate.  Something just for him.  

He smiles.  “My name is Manny.  And sure, that sounds good to me.” 

Tomorrow Gin’s recording of their meeting might hit social media.  Tomorrow they might get a deluge of messages from friends, teasing, congratulatory, a demand for their key to be returned from Bobby.  Tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, will hold conversations and quiet moments and grief and joy, and perhaps, even love.  

But for now in this moment, Kai’s hand is warm in his, welcome in the cradle of his palm like something that has come home.  And for Manny, now is enough.  

 


End file.
